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Sunday, 31 March 2013

This Easter weekend has heralded the first real days of spring. It was RAINING tonight, but finally its not snow; just a soft drizzle washing the streets clean...

Here are a couple of snapshots of the pot of daffodils we took out to our cousins this evening.

The bunny image is from CTMH's Sensational Spring, stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with alcohol markers. The pinwheels (see link to Paper Wishes template HERE) were made using assorted CTMH double-sided papers, card-stock and brads, affixed to chopsticks with Liquid Glass (which besides working like Glossy Accents, is a super-duper adhesive).

Thursday, 28 March 2013

These colours are featured in the CTMH Claire paper pack, which I just happened to purchase, making it VERY easy to create a set of notecards for my sister's birthday next month.

Here's the complete set; I made two of each:

I admit to using some sketches (and one outright COPY, never mind CASE!) for the card designs.

The first one is a variation on a card created by Jennifer McGuire for the Online Card Classes' Pattern Play. Rounding the opposite corners of simple paper rectangles gives them such an organic look! This card features stamps from the set included in the Claire Workshop-on-the-Go, and some pink and red sparkle gems.

This second card is taken directly from the Spring & Summer Idea book (CTMH catalogue). Lots of ink and sand-paper distressing result in a softer look. The sentiment stamps are from Paper Smooches' Good Gab. Love the funky font!

I was able to use the Hollyhock zipper trim for the scalloped element on this design. I used Liquid Glass to glue it down and some Fray-check on the cut edges to prevent it from unravelling.

The current sketch at CAS(E) this sketch was used for the final card. I'll be linking this one up to CTS #21:

I used a notebook die and coordinating stamp from Lil'Inker for the sentiment block and letters cut using the font from the Cricut Artiste cartridge. The fun chevron-striped ribbon in Outdoor Denim lent itself very well for the vertical flag on the sketch.

All of the flowers on these cards were stamped using the CTMH set Girls Rock. I LOVE the 70's feel to those blossoms--flowah-powah!

Time to check out what the other crafty gals at Color My Heart have done with these colours! Click HERE to visit the blog. We hope you'll link up your creations, using colours from your stash, and share them with us this week.

*****

{Personal anecdote} So I keep inviting my younger sister (she lives in town) for crafting evenings, card workshops, etc and she keeps turning me down. Just before Christmas, she called me up to ask for crafty help in making a secret-Santa gift for a co-worker. I helped her create a set of 6 notecards. She totally enjoyed it, and said she kept looking at them in wonder that she had made something so lovely, and wondering if she could just keep them? She also said, "If I had all those craft supplies, I'd make notecards as gifts for everyone I know..." So I took the hint! Now just have to make a colour-themed birthday card and I'm all set.

Happy Easter to you all! Hope the long weekend includes some fresh air, but also some crafty time!
Caroline

Here's a happy, not-so-little birthday card which will find it's way down to my friend Kate, enjoying her first winter post-retirement, in Florida.
I'm entering it into Dynamic Duos two color challenge HERE, featuring mono-chromatic pinks,

(I used the Close to My Heart colors Blush and Hollyhock)

and Keep It Simple's Challenge #10, which features shaped cards, HERE.

The card was cut at 5" using the Cricut Artiste cartridge (I'll have to post it in a 5x7 envelope!). I cut a second layer of vellum (suggestion from the talented Morag of Muggie's Hollow), scored to look like a cupcake wrapper. The appropriate greeting is from Paper Smooches' Birthday Sampler set. The pennant is free-hand cut using decorative scissors, embellished with curly grid ribbon from Paper Wishes. The card is hinged at the wrapper, opening up for a further birthday greeting.

Sunday, 24 March 2013

For some reason, that challenge just, well, ticks me off! You'd think creating a card within a 10 minute window, especially as you're allowed to assemble your materials ahead of time, would be easy. Not so much!

The challenge was calling to me again, this week:

I thought I'd CASE a card by Jennifer McGuire, from the Online Card Classes Pattern Play. So I didn't even have to do any real thinking! Here's how it began:

However, this lovely creation

took me 20:05 minutes! I thought I had it all figured out, but last-minute design decisions (chuck the embossed card base, too busy; trim the new kraft base two times! twiddle with the spacing between the elements; ditch the felt flower, too big; substitute the second smaller piece of patterned paper for the original solid green...you get the picture!) made this WAYYYYY long.

So. Again, my pride (or something!?) was pricked and I had to give it a second try. I decided to make something that LOOKS complicated, but actually is easy. I bought this template from Paper Wishes a while back, and hadn't yet tried it out. A pinwheel card with double-sided paper was the new goal.

Here's what the template looks like:

It involves tracing and hand-cutting (time-consuming!), but I was banking on the dimensional design to give that wow-factor. I was able to use one of the strips I cut from the first card as the flower stem (not cheating, right? it was just sitting on my desk...), had a LITTLE trouble getting the brad through 10 layers of paper, die-cut the flag-leaf, stuck it all down and VOILA! Only 9:32!

Simple but cute!

I'm going to link this one up to the Moxie Fab Challenge: Spring Home Decor. You could actually take this off the card and stick it into a flower pot for some funky bring-on-spring greenery.

I showcased this little bunny earlier this week in this POST. What? You didn't recognize him? Well, he's in disguise so no-one notices him hiding the eggs and jelly beans...

The bunny comes from Paper Smooches' A Magical Spring, as does the jelly-bean stamp and the greeting inside the card. I used the glasses and mustache from another PS set, Chubby Chum Pals, to create the disguise. I stamped them on a scrap of clear plastic packaging with Staz-On ink, so you can still see the bunny's adorable expression. The speech bubble die, from Simon Says Stamp, is cleverly hidden amongst the sponged clouds... The font is a retired CTMH set, nice and small for this 4"x4" card.

Here's the inside:

There is still time to play along with both these challenges--both run until the end of this month. Use the links above to visit the blogs, check out the other entries and get inspired!

I'm trying to catch up with my "homework" for the Online Card ClassPattern Play, this weekend.
Friday's class was all about weaving, folding and fussy-cutting patterned paper. A LOT like quilting techniques with fabric... A couple of the cards featured involved basket-weaving with strips of paper, at 90° angles. That reminded me of a reversible quilted wallhanging I did several years ago, with three different fabrics at 60° angles, which formed a tumbling block pattern. I thought I'd give it a try with paper!

I cut 1/2" strips and laid them out parallel, at a 60° angle to the vertical lines on my self-healing mat. My trusty Omnigrid 6"x6" ruler was invaluable for this job. Washi tape was used to temporarily adhere the strips to the work surface.

Then I laid out the next set of strips, following the opposite 60° angle,

then started weaving in the third set of strips vertically. I wish I could tell you a quick and easy rule on how to do this, but I basically just eye-balled it, developing a royal head-ache in the process!

Love the effect, though! I ended up with a 2"x4" useable strip of woven paper, which as I had used two-sided paper, had a completely different design on the back! I machine-stitched the edges together, and trimmed them with pinking shears, in keeping with the textile theme. Here's the finished card:

The poster-style stamp is from Close to My Heart, entitled Home Sweet Home. I gave it the on-trend blackboard treatment, heat-embossing with white and then rubbing on some white pigment ink with my finger. The embellishment was fussy-cut from coordinating paper and layered with foam tape, along with a die-cut flourish from Marianne Design.

Here's a final close-up of the woven panel, with its intriguing 3D tumbling-blocks effect. 10-minute Craft-Dash this was NOT! More like an hour+. However, an interesting experiment...

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Well it may be still snowing up in Ontario, but Color My Heart Challenge has some sweet blooming colours for you to play with this week:

BLUSH

BUTTERCUP

& SKY

I've been following Online Card Classes' Pattern Play this week, which features all kinds of ways to use patterned paper (aka: use up your STASH!). I dug through my old CTMH 6" sampler packs to find some bold and subtle prints in those primary pastels, and created Easter cards for my three sons.

I began with the adorable bunny from Paper Smooches stamp set, entitled Magical Spring.

I stamped him a few different ways, wanting to make him as chocolatey as possible.

I wanted to try stamping on the patterned paper, and created a negative egg-shape as a frame. I KNOW you should be able to just instruct the Cricut to cut the desired shape in the middle of the card, but I was too CHICKEN to experiment. So I just cut a 4" egg shape using the CTMH Artiste Cartridge and then used that as a template, cutting around it with a craft knife.

I used a variety of graphic image stamps from Paper Smooches, Geographic, Needle Little Love & Magical Spring to "decorate" the papers behind the egg recesses, then mounted the frame above them with foam tape.

The bunnies are sitting on grass cut with a My Favorite Things Die-namic. They are each holding different banners. Here's a closer look at each card:

Dark Chocolate Bunny with Lucy paper

Milk Chocolate Bunny with Chantilly

Some-bunny with Chantilly, Mayberry and Sophia papers

Now I just have to go out and find corresponding CHOCOLATE bunnies and I'll be all set for Easter!

Why not HOP over to Color My Heart and see what's cooking? The challenge is open until Thursday next week (March 28th). Perfect timing to create and share some Easter projects of your own, with the CTMH challenge colours, or as close as you can with your own supplies.

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

More fun with Online Card Classes'Pattern Play today. The theme was embracing big, bold patterns: cut them up, tone them down, use just pieces, etc.

One of my nephews has a birthday this coming weekend, so I got out my CTMH Superhero paper pack and chose one of the patterns I'd only used pieces of before (check out that project HERE).

Here's what the whole 12x12 sheet looks like:

Large, kind of random, its gonna compete with anything and everything it comes in contact with...however, its also fun!

I used Kristina Werner's idea of slicing a large-scale floral into strips and letting the solid-colour background card-stock act as the "grout" for the mosaic effect. She sliced her paper vertically. I chose to do DIAGONAL slices, to reinforce the "up, up and away" effect. Turns out diagonal is VERY tricky to re-align--some of the connections got off-set, but it just added to the sense of movement on the card. See what you think:

I stamped the birthday sentiment onto a rub-on that complemented the paper, matted it on black to give it some visual separation from the main panel and also popped it with foam tape. Again following Kristina's lead, I punched some small stars from a coordinating paper, matted and popped them as well. And who says a boy's card can't have some BLING? A few red jewels complete the look.

I added a third pattern to the inside of the card:

Hope the birthday boy, aka Super Sam, likes it.

The Online Card Class runs through the end of the week--there's still time to sign up, learn a few tricks and be MIGHTILY inspired!

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

That first fruity card gave me such a boost, so here is another stab at SUMMER and fruit-themed cards.

Card design courtesy of Amber Kemp-Gerstel. Another old CTMH stamp set called Summer Sweetness. I curved the sentiment, which became the hand-drawn fly's trail. Seeds and bug accented with Liquid Glass. REALLY old paper from Sizzix "Little Sizzles" pack. Remember those? Almost as long ago as summer...

Would someone please remind Mother Nature that tomorrow is the first day of SPRING?! We just had another 20cm of snow today (that's about 7"). Happy about more shoveling, I am NOT.

The challenge this week at Keep It Simple! is to include FRUIT on your project, in an attempt to hurry along the warmer weather. I certainly need the pick-me-up!

I've been following another of the Online Card Classes this week, too, entitled "Pattern Play." All kinds of design principles about scale, size, mixing, and altering are provided along with LOTS of inspiration, as always.

I'm also on a kick to use up some of my stash, so I found an older CTMH paper pack called (appropriately enough!) Cherry-O. I used three different patterns from that set, along with the coordinating stamp set. The giant scallop border is a Sizzix die; the scalloped circle frame is from Nestabilities. The card design is CASE'd from Kristina Werner.

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Ever have one of those weeks where things just don't working out as planned? Like that last sentence???!

I was all excited this past weekend because I had extra time to play in my crafty room. I was having great fun messing around with the OMBRE sponging effect. I got my DT assignment for Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge all done and photographed by Sunday evening.

Here's that card:

Closed my lap-top and noticed the sticky note which said:

GOLDRUSH

SWEET LEAF &

OLIVE

I had used the WRONG shade of gold on my card (Creme Brulee not Goldrush). And I was really liking that combination and had done a second card:

LOVED the cute blossom on the first card:

which used the Keyboard Uppercase stamp set for the petals, and the ribbon leaf idea, courtesy of my DT friend Amie K. Really liked those green epoxy bubbles, too. BUT, back to the drawing board I went...

I was thinking "Green & Gold, those are Packer colours!" But alas, no football themed stamps in my (ever-increasing) collection.

LOVED the banner, button & ribbon treatment, and liked the silhouette of the lucky leprechaun, but not so happy with the sentiment, which I stamped using A Typeface alphabet set--kinda crooked, no punctuation included in the set, so used Stickles, which got kinda messy...

Yikes! Then it was Thursday, and I had to work (I'm usually off that day). So back to the drawing board AGAIN after work, and here's the final offering:

About Me

I am a life-long crafter; started knitting & making Barbie clothes on my little Singer sewing machine at age 10... More recently quilting, scrap-booking, stamping and card-making. My day-jobs include speech-language pathologist, chief cook & bottle-washer and director of continuous quality improvement for my husband, three sons and small white dog, here in the nation's capital.